This year, the 15-stage epic off-road race starts in Lisbon, Portugal on January 5th and concludes on January 20th in Dakar, Senegal. The preparation for the 2008 Dakar Rally is in its final stages as the support vehicles, loaded with all the spare parts and equipment, begin their trip across the USA today to Savannah, GA where they will then travel by cargo vessel to Lisbon.
It is much more of a challenge for the Anaheim, California based team than that of their European based counterparts. The majority of the top teams participating in the Dakar Rally are based in Europe, which allows them more time to prepare unlike Team Dakar USA. Logistic preparation for Team Dakar USA is a very important dynamic to the success of the overall program.
Fortunately, the Hummer H3s are airlifted only days before the start, giving the team added time to test and perfect the race vehicles.
As Team Dakar USA enters its third Dakar Rally with the Monster Energy / Toyo Tire Hummer H3, Robby Gordon has also added a second Hummer to his elite off-road team. He has enlisted the help of fellow American Dakar veteran, Ronn Bailey to pilot an identically prepared Hummer H3. Bailey, who is CEO of Vanguard Integrity Professionals, an enterprise security software company, will participate in the next three Dakar Rally events as an integral part of Team Dakar USA.
The Vanguard Integrity Professional H3 Hummer entry will be very strategic to the teams overall objective of becoming the first American team to win the Dakar Rally.
With the added pressure of a second team, the team also has to prepare for the increased course length. The organizers of the Dakar Rally (the ASO) have lengthened the course by more than 1,000 km (621 miles) for a total of 9,273 km (or 5,762 miles). Therefore, the team needs to prepare for this added challenge by making sure that the parts will withstand the grueling desert terrain, that there is enough fuel ordered to make it to the end, and that support vehicles and team members get the rest needed.
For Gordon, the support of Ronn Bailey and the second entry easily outweighs the overall strain of the preparation for the additional team.
“If you look at the results of our Dakar effort, you’ll see they parallel to our efforts in the NASCAR Cup Series. Every year our programs continue to get better. We fell out of the Rally the first year after not making a checkpoint. Last year, we managed to become the first American team and manufacturer to win a stage. We finished in eighth place overall. This year, aside from drastically improving the Hummer, the next best thing we could do is try to level the playing field to be more like the multi-car factory-supported teams. Now we have a teammate in Ronn Bailey, and he is every bit as passionate about winning this race as I am.”
Bailey, who in the past had tackled Dakar with his own effort, clearly sees the wisdom in joining forces with Gordon. “Robby is building some of the most impressive off-road vehicles – it’s amazing just to watch the Hummer suspension work. For Robby and I to team up for Dakar makes sense on so many levels. It consolidates two strong American efforts in to one powerful team. For both of us the combined resources will provide advantages that will be undeniable.”
While the logistics of getting to the start of the Dakar Rally alone might seem overwhelming, Gordon and Bailey clearly have their eyes set on making history by becoming the first American team and drivers to win the legendary Dakar Rally.
DATE START FINISH CONNECTION SPECIAL CONNECTION TOTAL
05/01/08 Lisboa Portimăo 104 km 120 km 262 km 486 km
06/01/08 Portimăo Málaga 15 km 60 km 460 km 535 km
07/01/08 Nador Er Rachidia 182 km 372 km 163 km 717 km
08/01/08 Er Rachidia Ouarzazate 29 km 356 km 199 km 584 km
09/01/08 Ouarzazate Guelmim 188 km 498 km 148 km 834 km
10/01/08 Guelmim Smara 66 km 454 km 105 km 625 km
11/01/08 Smara Atâr 198 km 619 km 12 km 829 km
12/01/08 Atâr Nouakchott 44 km 450 km 37 km 531 km
13/01/08 Rest Day
14/01/08 Nouakchott Nouhadibou 37 km 525 km 86 km 648 km
15/01/08 Nouhadibou Atâr 111 km 552 km 22 km 685 km
16/01/08 Atâr Tidjikja 35 km 524 km 133 km 692 km
17/01/08 Tidjikja Kiffa 131 km 398 km 2 km 531 km
18/01/08 Kiffa Kiffa 25 km 484 km 6 km 515 km
19/01/08 Kiffa Saint-Louis 326 km 301 km 130 km 757 km
20/01/08 Saint-Louis Dakar 239 km 23 km 42 km 304 km
TOTAL 1,730 km 5,736 km 1,807 km 9,273 km
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A week ago, I mentioned how much I was looking forward to tracking Robby Gordon’s adventures as he made his way through the desert of Africa’s west coast during the 30th annual Dakar Rally.
Sadly, I have nothing to report. Not because Robby was in an accident. It was because he didn’t start.
None of the competitors did.
Friday, just hours before the race was supposed to kick off it’s first leg in Lisbon, Portugal, members of the Rally’s governing body, the A.S.O. (Amaury Sport Organization), sent word out to the teams that they would not be racing this year.
The decision to call off the Rally was due to those direct security threats made by Al Qaeda to attack the race at some point during its two week run. Eight of the stages or the Rally had been set to take place in Mauritania. Pointing to the December 24th murder of four French tourists in Mauritania, the French Government strongly recommended that the ASO not proceed with the race.
The men and women who run the Dakar Rally are competitors down to their bones. The Rally is not easy, and is not undertaken lightly. It takes months of preparation, and lots of money, all to go out and race in the sand and sandstorms, and sleep in tents for two weeks.
People like Robby Gordon thrive on such an adventure, and when it is called off, they are understandably disappointed. “It’s a way of life for 6 months preparing for the Rally. To have it just cancelled is frustrating.” Robby said as he and his teammate, Ronn Bailey, stood in front of their Hummer H3 race trucks Friday.
“Why not just run a few specials here (in Portugal), and at least have the race," said Gordon. "Then say OK, we can’t work it out, then cancel it then? But to cancel it before it even starts, that is difficult. I know my team spent millions of dollars and I can only imagine what the other teams have spent. I can understand the safety of human life and the spirit of the competitors and all that. Obviously Portugal has no problems with us, and we don’t have any problem here in Lisbon. Why not race two days going out and two days coming back, and then go that way and race two days going out and two days coming back? There’s solutions, and to cancel it is not one of them.”
Bailey - who is the CEO of Vanguard Integrity Professionals and was taking part in the race as part of Robby’s race team-- stated he had found out that there was a very real threat to the drivers if they went into Mauritania. “In the last four days, I have been monitoring (the security situation) very close, and have established contacts with the United States Consulate in Mauritania and their security officer there who gathers ground intelligence, and they have been receiving information from the French and German intelligence agencies. We’ve been seeing the threat escalate and realized that the four (French) tourists that were shot (as they picnicked along the side of the road) last Monday, I knew then it wasn’t a random act. As we saw it escalating, one of the things I did to put extra plans in place for my team, if the race did continue on into Mauritania, was I put together an evacuation plan…including a ground team...to pick us up and take us to the (American) Embassy so we could get out. We also bought bullet proof vests…it sounds like a girly thing to do, but in my line of business, planning for what might come is the right thing to do.”
We here in the States take it for granted that we can go to a race and sit down and enjoy what is going on on the track and not worry about our safety other than maybe for the drunk person behind us throwing a beer can. The idea that Robby Gordon would have to wear a bullet proof vest at any time while he is behind the wheel of a race vehicle is a bit unnerving. That he would have to do it because of an Al Qaeda threat borders on bone chilling.
The week hadn’t started off well for Robby and his team. Despite the fact that Robby marked his 39th birthday on Wednesday, not much else seems to have gone right for the man. By mid week, it seemed his biggest issue was the fact that a ship with much of the teams equipment was broken down somewhere in the Atlantic. Robby commented on the setback on his Dakar Rally fan site.
Good evening everyone,
Here's the deal...24 hours ago when the Monster army went to the port, they then found out the boat had trouble on the Atlantic. It will not be in Germany until the 6th of January
With that said, we have gone into our cat-like instincts and like a cat, we will always land on our feet running!
We have a 6x6 support truck in Lisbon already. Ronn Bailey has offered up his T4, which was picked up tonight by the guys that are in Europe already. Tomorrow they will arrive in Lisbon.
The race Hummers are 100% ready and were dropped off at LAX today at 4pm for a 4am flight to Amsterdam. When the Hummers hit the ground in Lisbon, they are ready to pull up to the start line on January 5th. We are scheduled to go through scrutineering on the 4th at 1pm. Don't foresee any issues from here.
Also on that airplane is another complete container of spare parts that will get us through the rally. Transmissions, hubs, cvs, axles, alternators, brakes, steering racks, power steering pumps, radiators, master cylinders, you see where I'm headed here...don't you?
Factory Dakar teams are prepared because we have thought ahead are very prepared ourselves!
Time will tell... RG
It seems Robby’s bad luck doesn’t just cover NASCAR. He pretty much has a black cloud lingering near-by on a semi-regular basis. In last years Baja 1000, he lost the race because of a missing light bar (it was packed in the wrong support vehicle and left Robby navigating the race by flashlight at night).
The only good news to come of all of this is that Robby will be able to test his own cars at Daytona next week. Brendan Gaughan had been slated to take the wheel since Robby was supposed to be trekking across the wilds of Africa. Robby is now scheduled to be back and in Daytona on Monday with the 7 team. It isn’t where he wanted to be, but maybe being behind the wheel of his Jim Beam Ford will take some of the sting away.
I, for one, am glad they cancelled the race. Oh, I understand the expense that went into it, and the disappointment of Robby and the other drivers. However, as often as I have complained about Robby on the track with his helmet tossing and impulsive gestures, I would not want to see him harmed, or worse, at the hands of a terrorist…or anyone else. I met Robby four years ago, and he is a very nice man, so long as he isn’t focused on his racing. It’s the passion that led him to complain about the cancellation of the race Friday, and that leads him to be so colorful at the track each weekend. Love him or hate him, it is men like him that make the sport of NASCAR as memorable, and exciting, as it is today.
Good luck in 2008 Robby. Hopefully, the worst of the year is already over, and you can start fresh as you begin the new NASCAR season.
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NASCAR driver Robby Gordon says the cancellation of the Dakar Rally cost him approximately $4.5 million, and he disagreed with the decision not to race at least a portion of the event.
Gordon, who won stages of the race for the past three years and led the event in 2005, was in Portugal and preparing for the start when organizers canceled it because of "direct" threats of terrorism from al-Qaida-linked militants.
Gordon said his team had built two cars for the event and had more than $1 million invested in each vehicle.
"I'm extremely disappointed," he said. "I can completely understand their decision not to go to Mauritania or not want to put competitors in an awkward or dangerous situation. That I understand 100 percent. But for them — with as many years as they've been doing this rally — not to have a backup plan? They just had no Plan B."
About 550 competitors were scheduled to start last Saturday in the 16-day,5,760-mile trek through remote and hostile dunes and scrub from Europe to Senegal in west Africa.
Organizers of the rally cited warnings from the French government about safety after the al-Qaida-linked Dec. 24 slaying of a family of French tourists in Mauritania — where eight of the competition's 15 stages were to be held — and "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations."
It was the first time that the 30-year-old rally, one of the biggest competitions in automobile racing, was called off.
Gordon said he believed the race course could have been altered, perhaps running to Morocco or back, or staying on the course in Portugal.
"All of the equipment was there," he said. "All of the teams were there. Television was set up. All of the stuff was done, and Portugal is not a dangerous area to race. It's a safe country, it's a beautiful country, and we had the permits to run on those roads and those trails. Some of it was military proving grounds, and we had what we needed to do to race there.
"Why didn't we go to Morocco and run a few stages in Morocco? "
Gordon had planned to skip NASCAR preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway, but was at the track on Monday to drive his own car in the three-day session.
He said the decision to cancel Dakar led to "severe financial loss at Robby Gordon Motorsports."
"An entry for the Dakar is $12,000 per person, not counting the vehicles," he said. "I think our entries were $360,000 and that's just the entry fees. That's not shipping trucks. That's not flying people there. That's not hotels in Lisbon. It's a big deal, and it's got me completely messed up right now in the head.
"Obviously, I'll recover from it like I always do, but I'm just extremely disappointed on how a sanctioning body could not be better prepared."
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gotta agree with the man.... lot of logistics involved in going that far for a race.. all the customs crud ya gotta go through... I watched a program on what it takes for a F-1 team to pack up and go to one event! all the red tape ! that is why nascar just stays in the states! imagine the expense of packing all those teams up ... and if you don't qualify for the race...yikes what a waste of money... and time that could be spent elsewhere! should let the army do their job... al whatever would not be a problem anymore!
Robby Gordon Prepares For Dakar Rally
Gordon furious over cancellation of Dakar
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